Formerly, wireless and/or mobile subscribers faced the irksome option of multiple billing for whichever content and/or service(s) they wished to utilize. Needless to say, the arrangement remained most inconvenient. With the growth and sophistication of modern telecommunications networks, and in particular, the subsequent evolution of open service architecture(s) (OSA) we have seen the decoupling of application and network layers together with an augmentation of multi-party applications and related infrastructure.
The Open Charging (OC) middleware platform and gateway system disclosed herein presages a new era of mobile subscriber access (and ease of access) to content and/or service(s) by allowing such content to be charged to subscribers existing account(s) with their mobile provider.
Indeed, none of the prior art reviewed teach or intimate the subject matter hereof seeking the protection of Letters Patent. Consider U.S. Pat. No. 5,963,630 to Dabbs et al., entitled Mediation service control point within an intelligent network, which teaches of a mechanism whereby a mediation SCP provides for a SCCP based mediation and redirection function whereof messages originated by SSPs are directed to the appropriate SCP(s) on the basis of subscriber identifiers which are encapsulated within the aforementioned messages produced by SSPs. However, Dabbs et al., does not teach or suggest a method of providing a mediation capability whereby a plurality of network elements (other than SCPs) can be accessed in an efficient manner via a variety of interfaces and protocols as the case may be. Furthermore, the patent to Dabbs et al. does not teach or suggest a method whereby a mechanism of accessing subscriber attributes (e.g. account balance information) stored on network elements (e.g. SCPs) can be extended to other computational platforms which may reside outside of the telecommunications carrier via an object oriented Application Programming Interface (API).
Consider similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,812,533 to Cox et al., entitled Service provision in communications networks, which details a service delivery infrastructure whereby a Service Control Point is augmented for the purpose of provisioning selected sets of services to users of the communications network by interacting with network systems via an object oriented architecture. However, it does not teach or suggest a method of reducing the number of transactions and therefore increasing the efficiency of non-augmented Service Control Points. Furthermore, the patent to Cox et al. does not teach or suggest a method of mediating and directing object-oriented requests to network elements other than Service Control Points.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 2002/0,058,496 by Bos et al., entitled Charging arrangement for a multimedia communication system, provides for a mechanism whereby charging information, related to multimedia service provided to a user, is directed to a Service Control Point via the CAMEL Application Part (CAP) bearer network interface for the purpose of facilitating the charging process for the aforementioned service. However, Bos et al.'s application does not teach or suggest a method of providing a mediation capability whereby a plurality of network elements (other than SCPs) can be accessed in an efficient manner via a variety of interfaces and protocols (other than CAP) as the case may be. Furthermore, their application does not teach or suggest a method whereby a mechanism of accessing subscriber attributes (e.g. account balance information) stored on network elements (e.g. SCPs) can be extended to other computational platforms which may reside outside of the telecommunications carrier via an object oriented Application Programming Interface (API).
In relation to the subscriber information caching mechanisms detailed herein, among other unique aspects of the invention of present, consider U.S. Pat. No. 6,473,402 to Moharram, entitled Communications link interconnecting service control points of a load sharing group for traffic management control, provides for a mechanism whereby a given a given transaction can be directed to a plurality of SCPs in order to share the transactional load among the SCPs. However, Moharram's patent does not teach or intimate a method of aggregating transactions for the purpose of reducing the collective number of transactions which have to be processed by a single SCP or plurality of SCPs. Furthermore, it does not teach or intimate a method of reducing the transactional capacity for network elements other than SCPs.
U.S. patent application Pub. Ser. No. 2002/0,156,863 by Peng, entitled Apparatus and methods for managing caches on a gateway, details art relevant to the caching of data particular to Internet gateways and the prior art deficiencies of wireless internet users who may have inadequate processing capability for retrieving information, and similarly, very limited memory space for caching such information. Nonetheless, nothing therein details or intimates art designed to lessen the impact on IN elements, by specifically and uniquely gathering, collating and analyzing machine readable records (as wireless subscriber balances and so on); thereby enabling a single update to such platforms, as opposed to a multitude thereof.